Families that illegally occupied land in Driftsands, Cape Town, to form Covid informal settlement have been living for three years without basic services such as tap water, sanitation or electricity. Worse still, the settlement has been flooded, knee-deep, in some places chest-deep, for two weeks now because of the heavy rainfall in the Cape. Covid […]

SNOW of more than 10cm is expected in these parts of South Africa this week. THE SNOW IS EXPECTED FROM TUESDAY MORNING According to VoxWeather forecaster Annette Botha, light snow is expected on Tuesday over the Western Cape Mountains, which includes the Matroosberg and Cederberg Mountains. Botha said a mid-winter cut-off low would bring widespread showers, a […]

The City of Cape Town has announced that Bingo is the name of the metro’s new anti-littering mascot following a process to get name suggestions and feedback from residents. Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis has thanked the city for all the feedback and enthusiasm in helping name the City’s new anti-littering mascot! We can reveal that […]

Solar-powered lights fixed onto the outside of shacks in informal settlements may be a better option than high-mast lights, a project in Khayelitsha, Cape Town, has shown. As part of their PhD project, Yael Borofsky and Stephanie Briers from ETH Zurich University in Switzerland collaborated with the leadership and residents of PJS informal settlement, the […]

The Democratic Alliance in Mpumalanga has welcomed the hefty R70million fine handed to the Lekwa Municipality by the Standerton Magistrates Court for contravening environmental legislature. ALSO READ: Cape Town dam levels: Water streams into dams as capacity nears The municipality was found guilty on seven counts relating to: failure to comply with conditions stipulated in the waste […]

The South African Weather Service (SAWS) issued a Yellow Level 2 warning for wind and waves in the Western Cape on Friday, 23 June. The weather warning key indicates there is a high likelihood of minor weather-based impacts. READ: Search for missing Kagiso Lesufi, 6, who vanished while playing with friends WESTERN CAPE WEATHER WARNING The weather […]

Ethiopia is preparing to launch the fourth filling of its mega-dam reservoir on the Blue Nile, the country’s deputy prime minister announced Thursday 22nd June, 2023, despite opposition from its downstream neighbour Egypt. The massive $4.2 billion Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) has been at the centre of a regional dispute ever since Ethiopia broke […]

Beijing logged its hottest June day since records began on Thursday, the national weather service said, as swathes of northern China sweltered in 40-degree heat. ALSO READ | When is the next public holiday in South Africa? Scientists say rising global temperatures – caused largely by burning fossil fuels – are aggravating extreme weather worldwide, and many countries in Asia have experienced […]

The official dam level stats in the Western Cape have skyrocketed in recent weeks following heavy rainfall and now show that five of the six dams are currently at, or exceeding, capacity. IT’S BACK! | Hellmann’s mayonnaise returns to shelves in South Africa The six major dams in the province – the Berg River, Steenbras Lower, Steenberg Upper, Theewaterskloof, Voëlvlei […]

The amount of rain in Cape Town over the past few weeks is dramatically captured by the graph below published by the municipality, which shows the volume of the city’s major dams every week since 2018. Note what has happened in the last three weeks as represented by the dotted navy blue line. While rain […]

Professor Debra Roberts, the Durban-based climate researcher who is running for the position of chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), says that you no longer need to beat the climate drum; the impact of climate change is already here. Roberts will become the first woman from Africa to chair the IPCC, if […]

The citizens of Hammanskraal, a small town north of South Africa’s capital, Tshwane, have been dealing with the deaths of 23 residents from cholera since 23 May 2023. Tests to find the source are continuing. The initial assumption by residents and authorities was that poor quality water led to the outbreak. In one week in […]

Learners living in Vygieskraal informal settlement in Belgravia, Cape Town, missed examinations on Wednesday because of widespread flooding this week. School clothes and books were sopping wet, some no longer usable. The widespread flooding has affected informal settlements including Philippi, Strand, Gugulethu, Mfuleni, Masiphumelele, and Khayelitsha. According to Gift of the Givers, the number of people in […]

Citrusdal residents have been isolated in their town since Wednesday evening after heavy flooding cut off access to the Cederberg town. Some residents are stranded outside with no way to return to their homes. The main access road off the N7 highway, the R393, collapsed on Wednesday evening during heavy downpours. The rapid flowing Olifants […]

The official dam level stats in the Western Cape have skyrocketed in recent weeks following ongoing heavy rainfall. IT’S BACK! | Hellmann’s mayonnaise returns to shelves in South Africa The six major dams in the province – the Berg River, Steenbras Lower, Steenberg Upper, Theewaterskloof, Voëlvlei and Wemmershoek – are cumulatively UP on a similar period last year. And […]

Vacant lots that were used as dumping sites are being turned into safe gardens thanks to a non-profit organisation based in Salt River, Cape Town. A tour guide teamed up with a local horticulturist to form a non-profit organisation and create safe green spaces in the historic suburb. The economic crisis wrought by Covid lockdowns […]

Families living in informal settlements situated in low-lying areas have had to abandon their homes because of flooding after heavy rains in Cape Town on Tuesday night. Many families with children say they don’t know where they will spend the coming nights. The cold front over the Western Cape is expected to last until Friday, […]

The official dam level stats in the Western Cape have skyrocketed in recent weeks following ongoing heavy rainfall. NEED A LONG WEEKEND | The next public holiday in South Africa is THIS WEEK The six major dams in the province – the Berg River, Steenbras Lower, Steenberg Upper, Theewaterskloof, Voëlvlei and Wemmershoek – are cumulatively UP on a similar […]

Ten climate activists, dressed in suits and ties, managed to disrupt Standard Bank’s Annual General Meeting on Monday morning. The group were among about 200 people who gathered outside the head office in Rosebank Johannesburg, demanding that Standard Bank stop investing in fossil fuels. Ten climate activists disrupted Standard Bank’s Annual General Meeting on Monday […]

Climate change is not just a buzzword or a topic for political debates. It is a real and pressing issue that affects every aspect of our lives. The effects of climate change are already being felt worldwide, from rising sea levels to heatwaves, droughts, floods, loss of biodiversity, food insecurity and more. In Nigeria, climate […]

Wildlife ACT’s Southern Drakensberg Conservation Project is calling attention to and actively mitigating the concerning decline of South African vulture populations. The Project, which falls under the conservation organisation’s Vulture Conservation Programme, calls on volunteers from around the world to assist in daily on-the-ground conservation efforts being made in the Southern Drakensberg region. The Project […]

GOING GREEN: V&A WATERFRONT WANTS PLASTIC GONE The V&A Waterfront recently amended its tenant lease agreement to include details that will help eliminate single-use plastics in the Waterfront by 2025. Guided by the South African Plastics Pact (SAPP), which is a ‘collaborative initiative aimed at creating a circular economy for plastic packaging’, the V&A Waterfront has included […]

DURBAN – Over 300 swimmers will descend on the Durban Beach Club for the Ardagh Glass Packaging World Oceans Day Swim on Saturday, in an event that represents a much bigger cause than the average open-water race. While the elite swimmers will be chasing titles in the 5km, 3.2km, 1.6km or 800m races, the event […]

The earth’s oceans are under grave threat. Scientists in many fields have pointed to the large-scale negative shifts brought about by human-made pollutants, mining and overfishing. How people now choose to behave, make collective decisions and build solidarity around the health of oceans has an impact not just on our own species but on all […]

South Africa’s agriculture has had great consecutive seasons since 2019/20. The sector’s gross value added grew by 14.9% in 2020, 8.8% in 2021 and modestly by 0.3% in 2022. This was primarily supported by favourable weather conditions. The current season is also likely to deliver solid growth for the sector, with variation across sub-sectors. We […]